Google, Here, and TomTom, the Dutch satellite navigation maker, have for years been building their databases by mapping the world’s highways using lidar, a sort of spinning sensor that sits on top of research vehicles.
“The traditional map was designed to get you from A to B but for guidance only — a line between two nodes,” says Harold Goddijn, chief executive of TomTom, Nokia’s closest western competitor in HD mapping. “For highly automated driving, you need to know which lane you’re in.”
HD maps are made up of multiple layers. The basic navigation level guides drivers to a destination like a conventional map. A “localisation” layer calculates the car’s position with added accuracy, say within a lane on a motorway. It does this by combining information from the car’s sensors and cameras with the GPS data from the navigation layer.
A third layer contains features such as lane markings, traffic signs and speed limits, as well as road characteristics, including bends, inclines and road cambers.
“It enables the world to be computable, which is what is needed in these automated cars,” says Bruno Bourguet, head of sales and business development at Here.
Nokia, Audi, Daimler and BMW all declined to comment on the future ownership of the mapping service.
The excitement around mapping has been reflected in a flurry of dealmaking and partnerships in the past year. Uber bought DeCarta, a San Jose-based start-up, in March.
Apple, which does not comment on small acquisitions, is thought to have acquired Coherent Navigation, a precision GPS company, in May.
This week, Bosch, a car parts supplier, deepened its partnership with TomTom, to refine their maps for driverless cars.
Carmakers and their suppliers are active in autonomous technology not only because they want to prove continued relevance compared with Silicon Valley. They also want to add automated safety features to cars that carry a premium in the showroom. Precise topographical data could warn a driver that they are taking a bend too fast, or advise a lorry driver when to ease off the accelerator to conserve fuel.
An end-to-end service developed by Here for Jaguar Land Rover allows a driver to continue navigating, with the route information transferring from the dashboard to the user’s smartphone.
All of this is a way of putting the carmakers back in the control of the car. as Mr Fuss says: “The big risk is that these companies end up telling the carmakers, ‘This is how the future car should be’.”